# 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election

Elections in West Virginia :
Federal government
Presidential elections
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Presidential primaries
Democratic
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Republican
2000
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
U.S. Senate elections
1863
1865
1871
1877
1877 sp
1882
1883
1887
1888
1889
1892
1893
1893 sp
1895
1899
1901
1905
1907
1911
1911 sp
1913
1916
1918
1922
1924
1928
1930
1934
1936
1940
1942
1942 sp
1946
1948
1952
1954
1956 sp
1958
1958 sp
1960
1964
1966
1970
1972
1976
1978
1982
1984
1988
1990
1994
1996
2000
2002
2006
2008
2010 sp
2012
2014
2018
2020
2024
2026
U.S. House of Representatives elections
1863
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1883
3rd sp
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1905
2nd sp
1906
1908
1910
1912
1913
1st sp
1914
1916
2nd sp
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1933
3rd sp
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1951
5th sp
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
3rd sp
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
State government
General elections
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Gubernatorial elections
1863
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2011 sp
2012
2016
2020
2024
Attorney General elections
2012
2016
2020
2024
Secretary of State elections
2012
2016
2020
2024
Auditor elections
2012
2016
2020
2024
Treasurer elections
2012
2016
2020
2024
Senate elections
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
House of Delegates elections
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
Local government
Charleston (mayoral elections)
2022
Huntington (municipal elections)
2020
2024
Wheeling (municipal elections)
2020
2024 :
vte :
The 1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election was the first gubernatorial election, held on Thursday, May 28, 1863. Unionist Arthur I. Boreman was elected virtually without opposition. This was the first of two gubernatorial elections held in West Virginia during the American Civil War; 17 counties were occupied by Confederate military forces on Election Day and did not participate in the balloting.
In a contested convention held at Parkersburg, West Virginia, the Union Party nominated Judge Arthur I. Boreman over his nearest rival, Peter G. Van Winkle. Despite fissures within the statehood movement driven by the Willey Amendment, an abolitionist proposal backed by U.S. Senator Waitman T. Willey, no challenge to the Union ticket emerged from either the radical or conservative ends of the party. Secessionists loyal to the Confederacy did not recognize the legitimacy of the new state and consequently did not participate in the campaign.
Boreman received over 99 percent of the vote in 33 participating counties against only three votes for other candidates. Voter turnout was anemic, and newspapers complained of the slowness of the returns; however, by June 13, sufficient returns had been received for officials to certify Boreman's election. He was inaugurated as the first governor of West Virginia on June 20, 1863, in a ceremony at the Linsly Institute in Wheeling alongside other officers of the new state government.

## Background

Cultural, economic, and regional differences had long separated Western Virginia from the eastern Tidewater counties that dominated political and economic life in Antebellum Virginia. Slavery dominated the Tidewater, while it had a substantially weaker presence in the western counties, which remained economically underdeveloped. By 1830, the disparity between the sections was such that Western Virginia would have elected a majority of members in the General Assembly if representation were allocated in proportion to the free population, (the "white basis,") but the Three-fifths Compromise and the mass disenfranchisement of lower-class whites allowed eastern slaveholders to dominate the Assembly and state offices, although a minority of the overall population. After 1830, the political orientation of the Shenandoah Valley shifted eastward as the region became more closely linked to slavery, while Northwestern Virginia grew increasingly alienated from the Tidewater.
Following the election of Abraham Lincoln and the commencement of hostilities between the United States and the Confederacy, the Virginia Secession Convention voted to secede from the Union on April 17, 1861; 26 of the 31 northwestern delegates voted against the ordinance. Western unionists convened the First Wheeling Convention on May 13 to discuss options for resistance in the event of Virginia's secession; following approval of the secession ordinance by a popular referendum on May 23, the Second Wheeling Convention issued the "Declaration of the People of Virginia" condemning secession as unconstitutional and treasonous, declared all state offices vacant, and installed Francis H. Pierpont as head of the Restored Government of Virginia. The success of the Western Virginia campaign established Union military control over the region and enabled unionist leaders to adopt and ratify a dismemberment ordinance between August 20 and October 24, beginning the process of formally separating from Virginia.
Although broadly popular in the Trans-Allegheny counties that had voted against secession, the new state movement divided Unionist leaders. Conservatives in the Union Party privately opposed dismemberment and attempted to undermine the statehood movement by annexing a number of secessionist southwestern counties to the proposed State of Kanawha. Ultimately, fifty counties would comprise the new State of West Virginia; counties that had voted against the secession ordinance contributed 60 percent of the population of the new state, while 40 percent lived in secessionist counties, several of which remained under Confederate military occupation.
Unionists were further divided by the requirement, introduced by Congress, that West Virginia abolish slavery as a condition for statehood. Despite the opposition of such prominent Unionists as John S. Carlile, the Willey Amendment (so named for its author, U.S. Senator Waitman T. Willey of Morgantown, West Virginia) was ratified by voters in March 1863, and West Virginia duly entered the Union on June 20. Nevertheless, the battle over the Willey Amendment permanently divided West Virginian Unionists. Those who had supported the amendment became known as Unconditional Unionists and eventually provided the cornerstone of the Republican Party in West Virginia, while Carlile and others who argued in defense of slavery in 1863 joined forces with Copperheads in the Democratic Party to oppose Lincoln's reelection in 1864.

## Union Party
### Convention

From May 6 to 7, 1863, the Union Party's state convention was held to nominate candidates for multiple political offices. Each county delegation was awarded a number of votes equal to its total white population. For the party's gubernatorial nomination Samuel Crane was nominated by James G. West, Boreman was nominated by E. M. Norton, and Peter G. Van Winkle was nominated by Ben Smith.
On the first ballot Van Winkle received a plurality of the vote, but did not receive the nomination due to a majority being required. West withdrew Crane's nomination before the second ballot in which Boreman defeated Van Winkle.

### Candidates

* Arthur I. Boreman, judge of the 19th circuit court of Virginia, former president of the Second Wheeling Convention and delegate from Wood County
* Samuel Crane, auditor of the Restored Government of Virginia and former delegate to the Second Wheeling Convention from Randolph and Tucker counties
* James W. Paxton
* Peter G. Van Winkle, former delegate to the Second Wheeling Convention from Wood County

### Results

1863 West Virginia Union gubernatorial convention :
| Candidate | First ballot | First ballot | First ballot | Second ballot | Second ballot | Second ballot |
| Candidate | County units | Votes | % | County units | Votes | % |
| Arthur I. Boreman | 8.317 | 80,886 | 26.67 | 23.002 | 181,185 | 59.70 |
| Peter G. Van Winkle | 16.950 | 135,528 | 44.70 | 16.998 | 122,291 | 40.30 |
| Samuel Crane | 14.532 | 84,144 | 27.74 | | | |
| James W. Paxton | 0.200 | 2,636 | 0.87 | | | |
| TOTAL | 40 | 303,194 | 100.00 | 40 | 303,476 | 100.00 |

## General election

On May 28, 1863, Boreman won the gubernatorial election without opposition.

## Results

1863 West Virginia gubernatorial election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Union | Arthur I. Boreman | 25,797 | 99.99 |
| | Various | Others | 3 | 0.01 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 25,780 | 100.00% |

### Results by county

| County | Arthur I. Boreman Union | Arthur I. Boreman Union | Total |
| County | Votes | Percent | Total |
| Barbour | 770 | 100.00 | 770 |
| Berkley | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Boone | 102 | 100.00 | 102 |
| Braxton | 212 | 100.00 | 212 |
| Brooke | 678 | 100.00 | 678 |
| Cabell | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Calhoun | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Clay | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Doddridge | 742 | 100.00 | 742 |
| Fayette | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Gilmer | 289 | 100.00 | 289 |
| Greenbrier | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Hampshire | 135 | 100.00 | 135 |
| Hancock | 418 | 100.00 | 418 |
| Hardy | 91 | 100.00 | 91 |
| Harrison | 2,037 | 100.00 | 2,037 |
| Jackson | 534 | 100.00 | 534 |
| Jefferson | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Kanawha | 655 | 100.00 | 655 |
| Lewis | 1,184 | 100.00 | 1,184 |
| Logan | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Marion | 1,428 | 100.00 | 1,428 |
| Marshall | 2,067 | 100.00 | 2,067 |
| Mason | 747 | 100.00 | 747 |
| McDowell | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Mercer | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Monongalia | 1,585 | 100.00 | 1,585 |
| Monroe | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Morgan | 261 | 100.00 | 261 |
| Nicholas | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Ohio | 2,905 | 100.00 | 2,905 |
| Pendleton | 161 | 100.00 | 161 |
| Pleasants | 239 | 100.00 | 239 |
| Pocahontas | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Preston | 1,639 | 100.00 | 1,639 |
| Putnam | 232 | 100.00 | 232 |
| Raleigh | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Randolph | 239 | 100.00 | 239 |
| Ritchie | 667 | 100.00 | 667 |
| Roane | 177 | 100.00 | 177 |
| Taylor | 867 | 100.00 | 867 |
| Tucker | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Tyler | 720 | 100.00 | 720 |
| Upshur | 879 | 100.00 | 879 |
| Wayne | 289 | 100.00 | 289 |
| Webster | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| Wetzel | 870 | 100.00 | 870 |
| Wirt | 375 | 100.00 | 375 |
| Wood | 1,603 | 100.00 | 1,603 |
| Wyoming | Did not participate | Did not participate | — |
| TOTAL | 25,797 | 99.99 | 25,780 |